Weston hundred highlights Zimbabwe's inadequacies

The sunshine may have been more like Harare than Hertfordshire, but it failed to inspire Zimbabwe who toiled with little reward on the opening day of their match against Middlesex at the Denis Compton Oval in Shenley. Middlesex won the toss, batted, and reached the close on a commanding 330 for 5.

The star of the show was Robin Weston, who made the most of an increasingly rare first-team opportunity to score his seventh first-class hundred. He was dropped by Stuart Carlisle at cover off a hard chance before lunch, but that was his only reprieve. The Zimbabwe bowling was as toothless and wayward as it had been in the first Test at Lord's, and most of the wickets that fell owed more to batsman error.

Zimbabwe struck with the second ball of the day, when Andy Strauss flicked at a leg-side delivery from Sean Ervine and Tatenda Taibu held the catch (0 for 1). It was a good start for the 20-year-old Taibu, captaining Zimbabwe for the first time in the absence of the rested Heath Streak, but thereafter the Zimbabwean bowlers toiled in vain, allowing sufficient loose stuff for Weston and Owais Shah to rattle along without ever having to take risks. Both batsmen reached their fifties off successive balls from Raymond Price in the second over after lunch. Weston went briefly on the rampage, hitting four boundaries in two overs, before settling down again.

Shah fell for 68, pulling one of Friend's stock short balls to midwicket after a stand of 148 with Weston. Ben Hutton (2) never looked confident and was quickly caught at slip off Price. Ed Joyce played himself in quietly while Weston, slow in the nineties, finally reached his century off 163 balls, leaving the Zimbabweans to regret their expensive error in the field. Again Weston celebrated with a spate of boundaries and reached tea on 125.

But Weston never got going after the break, miscuing a pull off Friend to give Vusi Sibanda an easy catch at midwicket for 129. His innings included 22 fours and two sixes.

Joyce in his quiet, masterly way kept the score ticking over, finding the gaps with rare skill. He reached 80 and was on course for a century when a smart piece of fielding by Sibanda ran him out as he lazily went for a third run. It was rare piece of luck for Zimbabwe on day little else went their way.